Dragon Quest V
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, (ドラゴンクエストV 天空の花嫁, Doragon Kuesuto Faibu: Tenkū no Hanayome, "Dragon Quest V: Bride of Heaven"), is the fifth installment in the Dragon Quest series, developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix. It is the first Dragon Quest title to be released for the Nintendo Super Famicom (or SFC). It was first released for the SFC in Japan on September 27, 1992, and has been remade as a PlayStation 2 game in 2004 in Japan, which was developed by Artepiazza and Matrix Software, and published by Square Enix. Another remake for the Nintendo DS has been recently announced by Square Enix and is currently in development. It is currently set for a July 17, 2008 release in Japan. The remake will also see release in North America and Europe , marking the first time the game will have an official release in either territory. Along with Dragon Quest VI, the original Super Famicon release never reached North America. In the absence of an official translation, two finished fan translations exist for the Super Famicom version , and a fan translation of the PS2 version is in development. Dragon Quest V takes place over twenty years of the main character's life, in which he gets married and has a family. The title features an interesting gameplay dynamic in which monsters from random encounters may offer to join the player's party. This concept was used in later Dragon Quest games (generally with some modifications), and focused on exclusively in the Dragon Quest Monsters series. Catching monsters would also be later used in the Pokémon video game series. Gameplay Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level-up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of forty monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with more in the remake. Story Characters The Hero is, in the early chapters of the game, a six-year-old boy who travels all around the world along with his father, Papas. After the death of Papas, the Hero is a slave forced to undergo hard labor in the building of a great temple. Ten years after, he finally escapes from there, and he starts a journey to find his mother, Martha (マーサ Māsa), who is said to have died soon after the Hero was born. She came from Elhaven (エルヘブン Eruhebun) and hence had the power to tame monsters. The Hero's name from the manga is Abel. Papas (パパス Papasu) is the father of the Hero. Though he was once the king of Granbania (グランバニア Gurambania), he left his homeland to search for the Legendary Hero and his wife. His attendant, Sancho (サンチョ Sancho), usually stays in Santa Rosa (サンタローズ Santarōzu). Bianca (ビアンカ Bianka) is a daughter of the innkeepers of Alcapa (アルカパ Arukapa) and the childhood friend of the Hero. After growing up, she moves to a mountainside village for recuperation of her father, and is one of the women whom the player can choose to marry the Hero. Flora (フローラ Furōra) is a daughter of Ludman, who recently got back from a religious house. She is the second choice for becoming the Hero's bride. Her father, Ludman (ルドマン Rudoman) is a wealthy man living in Salabona (サラボナ Sarabona). He seeks his daughter's bridegroom, but will only accept a man who is able to pass his trial. Andy (アンディ Andi) a friend of Flora's, also desires to marry her. Plot Dragon Quest V begins with a brief scene of the Hero's birth in which the player gives the Hero a name. After that scene, the Hero finds himself in a room onboard a ship with his father, Papas. After the ship stops at Vista Port (ビスタ Bisuta), they leave the ship for Santa Rosa, where Papas's friend Sancho lives. Upon arrival, the Hero meets Bianca. After exploring the cave behind Santa Rosa, he and Papas accompany Bianca to her town Alkapa. Upon arrival at that town, Bianca and the Hero explore the haunted castle Lenoire (レヌール Renūru), where they obtain a mysterious Golden Orb. Afterwards Papas and the Hero return to Santa Rosa, along with a pet tiger named Borongo (ボロンゴ Borongo), a monster that was saved from bullying by the Hero and Bianca. The next day, the Hero notices a man in the town who looks very similar to him. That man asks the Hero to show him the Golden Orb and, after returning it, asks him to take care of his father Papas. Elsewhere in town, he finds the spirit of Bella, who asks him to return with her to her country, the snow-covered land of Faerie. Upon arriving there, the two defeat the Queen of Ice to allow Spring to return to the land. After accomplishing this feat, the Hero, Papas, and Borongo travel to the eastern kingdom of Reinhart (ラインハット Rainhatto), where the Hero befriends Prince Henry (ヘンリー Henrī). However, Henry is kidnapped, forcing the Hero and Papa to rescue him. Once the Hero finds Henry in a nearby hideout, they are attacked by a duo of powerful monsters, in which Papas defeats, but then a third entity appears and threatens the Hero's life, forcing Papas to give in. In the process, Papas is killed by powerful monsters, the Golden Orb is destroyed, and the Hero and Henry are sold into slavery. The story continues ten years later, and the player finds that the Hero and Henry have grown up working on a giant temple. They get into a scuffle with the guards after seeing a girl named Maria (マリア Maria) being whipped; the three of them are released from the temple and sent drifting to the casino town of Oracleberry (オラクルベリー Orakuruberī) by Maria's brother. Here the Hero and Henry discover that Santa Rosa has been destroyed by the armies of the Queen of Reinhart, who has been acting as regent for Henry's brother Dale. Upon paying a visit to his homeland, Henry discovers that his mother has been replaced by a monster. After unmasking the fake queen using the mirror of Ra and defeating the monster, Henry and Maria marry and become advisors to the king. Afterward, the Hero will travel to the western continent, where he will meet up with Borongo once more, and travel to the town of Salabona, where the wealthy nobleman Ludman and his daughter Flora live. He sends the hero on a quest to retrieve two magic rings of fire and water as a test of his worthiness as a suitor for Flora. The Hero is able to accomplish this task only with the aid of Bianca, who he meets in a nearby village. Afterwards, Ludman offers the Hero the chance to marry Flora, but it is also possible for him to marry Bianca instead. After the marriage, the Hero takes his bride through a great mountain path that leads to his homeland of Granbania. Upon their arrival, Sancho is shocked to see the Hero and Bianca (or Flora), and immediately takes them to see the current King of Granbania--Ojiron, younger brother of Papas. The Hero must undergo a Royal trial before he can assume the throne, while his pregnant wife rests. During the coronation celebration, the Hero's wife is kidnapped, but the newly born twins are safely hidden. The Hero rushes to save his wife, but upon defeating the powerful monsters who kidnapped her, both the Hero and his bride are cursed and turned into stone; they remain this way for eight long years. The Hero is found by his two children and Sancho in the garden of a wealthy man's estate, and is revived and taken back to Granbania castle. They still have not found Bianca, but they have a lead on the whereabouts of the Hero's mother: she was from the town of Elhaven on the continent north of Granbania. The Hero goes there, finds more information, and procures a magic carpet. Travelling the world to collect the legendary "Heavenly" or "Celestial" armaments for the Legendary Hero, it is discovered that the Hero's son is indeed the Legendary Hero sought by Papas almost twenty years ago. During this stage of the journey, the Hero avenges Papas by killing Gema (ゲマ Gema), and restores the Dragon God, as well as his flying castle, to their proper homes in the sky. To accomplish this, the Hero has to enter a time warp to retrieve the Golden Orb from his child self. The Hero, older and wiser, attempts to talk Papas out of going to Reinhart to his demise, but Papas does not heed the warning. After returning to the temple the Hero helped build as a slave, the Celestial armor is found, as well as the statue of his wife. After the final source of evil is eradicated from the world, the party is told that Martha remains in the Demon World, and that the final source of evil, Mildrath (ミルドラース Mirudorāsu), is lying in wait for the Legendary Hero. The Hero, his wife, and their children agree not to leave Martha in the demon world, so together they travel there via a portal near Elhaven, and reach the Evil Mountain. Martha is found inside, but dies shortly after meeting the Hero and his family. The party continues on to confront and destroy the lord of evil, Mildrath. They return to Granbania, and have a joyful party. As the family celebrates, Papas and Martha watch their son and his family from the heavens, happy and content with their progeny. After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later). Setting Dragon Quest V is set years after the Celestial Hero defeated Necrosaro on its previous installment, Dragon Quest IV. The game starts at Vista Port, with the Hero leaving to go to Santa Rosa. Like all other Dragon Quest games, this one takes place in a medieval world, with no real modern technology, such as cars or electricity. Characters fight with swords, clubs, and magic instead of guns or other weapons. The layout of the world is similar to the layout in Dragon Quest IV, but with a new set of locations, and considerable geographic alteration. The Tower of Heaven and Castle Zenithia are the only surviving locations from the previous game, and they have fallen into ruin and are no longer connected. The overworld has different monster encounter tables for each of the three eras. The quest takes the Hero and his party to many exotic locations, such as a fairy village, a mansion made of ice, several caves, and a volcano. The party eventually makes its way to the castle Zenithia, which is a castle in each game of the Zenithia trilogy. Like a few other Dragon Quest games, the final enemies reside in a dark world, separate from the main map. Development Production As with the other main games in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest V's scenario was designed by Yuuji Horii, whereas the artwork was done by Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame. Koichi Sugiyama composed all the music for Dragon Quest V. This game was never officially released in America, Enix having given up on bringing RPG's there for the time being. PS2 remake Square Enix released a PlayStation 2 enhanced remake of Dragon Quest V on March 25, 2004, with first day sales of 722,000. As of April 2004, the game has sold over 1.5 million copies making it the top selling Dragon Quest remake game of all-time, and is available in Japan as a Square Enix Ultimate Hits title. The remake was developed by former Dragon Quest VII art directors, Artepiazza. It features 3D graphics that are similar to Dragon Quest VII, but it utilizes the extra PlayStation 2 graphical capabilities. The Hero and his companions have to fight more monsters in the PlayStation 2 remake than they did in the Super Famicom original, but the character limit on the party has been increased from three to four. Also, there were only 40 monsters available to the player's party in the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest V due to ROM limitations. The PlayStation 2 remake, however, does not suffer from this restriction. The music is performed by the NHK Symphony. Another new feature in the remake is the "Yuuji's Specialty Museum," where the player has to collect local specialties from all around the world, return the items back to a character named "Yuuji," and receive rewards for them. The Dragon Quest V remake is the third Dragon Quest release in the Square Enix name (after Kenshin Dragon Quest and Slime Morimori Dragon Quest). Lastly, a Dragon Quest VIII preview video disc is included in the Japanese release of Dragon Quest V remake. A fan translation of the PS2 version is currently being worked on by Kojiro Translations. DS remake A Dragon Quest V remake for the Nintendo DS was announced in late 2007 by Square Enix and is currently in development by ArtePiazza. The game uses the same engine as the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV. On April 23, 2008, it was reported that Square Enix has applied for the trademark "Hand of the Heavenly Bride" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.Latest Status Info It was confirmed to be in reference to Dragon Quest V by a listing from Nintendo of third-party titles for Nintendo platforms.http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/080425e.pdf On May 20, 2008, Square Enix opened up the North American site featuring the three Dragon Quest DS remakes, acknowledging the game will see a release in North America. On the following day, Square Enix sent out a press release saying that the game will be released in Europe under the name Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride. Reception Like the other games in the series, Dragon Quest V was very popular in Japan.In 2006, the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu had readers vote on the top one hundred games of all time, Dragon Quest V coming in at 11 and the PS2 remake at number 40. In particular, the way the story is divided by different periods of time has been praised, as it is something that has not appeared in many video games. Dragon Quest V has also been acknowledged as Yuji Horii's favourite in the series. Soundtrack As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. A compilation of Dragon Quest V's music was put on the album Dragon Quest V ~Bride of the Heavens~ Symphonic Suite, was released in 1992 and then again in 2000. The first version features an extra disc with the original soundtrack as well as the symphonic one. Here is the tracklisting of the Symphonic Suite: # Overture (1:59) # Castle Trumpeter (2:21) # Melody in an Ancient Town ~ Toward the Horizon ~ Casino ~ Lively Town ~ Melody in an Ancient Town (7:50) # Magic Carpet ~ The Ocean (7:39) # Melody of Love (3:00) # Monsters in the Dungeon ~ Tower of Death ~ Dark World ~ Monsters in the Dungeon (6:20) # Violent Enemies ~ Almighty Boss Devil Is Challenged (5:44) # Noble Requiem ~ Saint (5:53) # Satan (4:52) # Heaven (2:57) # Bridal Waltz (3:39) New Features * It is now possible to use katakana and numbers to name characters; earlier games had only allowed the use of hiragana. Also, message windows can now display kanji. * Search, Talk, and Open commands can now be issued by a single button press, bypassing the menu. * Combat screens now have background images, as in the first game. The images actually depend on the local terrain. Also, attacking a monster or casting an offensive spell will produce a matching animation. * The SNES version only allows 3 active party members instead of 4; a 5-person wagon is still available, however. * The shop interface now shows what stat changes will occur when a weapon is equipped, and can equip purchased items automatically. * Characters can now move a half-block at a time. * There is now a separate Defense stat, determining a character's base defense; in earlier games the base defense was calculated from other statistics. * Boomerangs and whips, for the first time, can attack multiple enemies. * Some traditional spells had their effects slightly altered. * Luisa's tavern, from Dragon Quest III will appear in Granvania starting in the second half of time period two; it allows the human characters to removed from the party, freeing up additional slots for new characters. * Pots, barrels, and similar objects can now be Searched, and will often contain useful items. Combat System Dragon Quest V features a more advanced party AI than Dragon Quest IV. There is a "learn" strategy, which improves much faster than its counterpart in the previous game. It is also possible, unlike in the previous game, to set PCs to command mode, allowing them to be controlled individually as in the first three games. Also, the mechanism for replacing characters with reinforcements from the wagon was changed. It no longer takes a turn for a character to be swapped with one in the wagon, and it is possible to replace all characters at once. For the first time, any PC who is targetting an already-dead monster will have their target automatically transferred to one of the other monsters (selected at random). In earlier games, the action was simply cancelled. Wyvern wings and Return spells The wyvern wing item will transport the party to the last town they visited, as in the earliest games of the series; but the Return spell will take them to the town of their choice as in the later games. The Return spell can only be acquired at a certain stage of the plot (in the first half of the second era); it cannot be acquired by levelling, and monsters with this spell will not appear until the plot event occurs. This marks the first time in the series that spell acquisition has been tied to plot events. Playstation 2 remake The engine of the PS2 remake is similar to the one used in Dragon Quest VII. Like Dragon Quest VII, there is a pseudo-3D view replacing the original bird's eye view. The graphics are updated accordingly. There is also a preview of Dragon Quest VIII bundled with the remake. * The “Bag” is available from the start of the game; so the Vault is replaced with a Bank. * There are now 10 possible names for the Baby Panther, instead of 4. * The Monster Depository can now store 200 monsters instead of 50. * Monster companions can now have their names changed. * One can talk to companions while traveling in the overworld. * Pots, barrels, and similar objects can now be picked up and thrown. * The AI modes are updated to match the ones used in Dragon Quest VII. * The "Paralysis" status effect will now wear off after several turns. * Items now sell for 50% of their purchase price, instead of 75%. * Some new spells and specialty attacks have been added. * The first-level fire spell, HYADO or Blaze, can now be cast by the hero's daughter; in the previous game there was no way to obtain it. * There can now be 4 active party members in battle, instead of 3. Enemies appear in concomitantly larger groups, even in the early parts of the game when there are 3 or fewer party members anyway. * Stat gains on level-up are now randomized. * There are now 70 potential species of monster companion, instead of 40. * Bosses are much more powerful. * Some town and dungeon maps are redesigned. * There are now Sugoroku boards as in Dragon Quest III. * The casino now offers poker in addition to its other games; the party's slime companion, if any, can be entered in the Slime Race. * Save games now display a picture of the party's surroundings as a reminder. * The marriage system is different than in the original. * Gema now plays a more significant role in the plot. Special Products Each castle and town now has a special product which can be collected there. These items can be displayed in the special product museum; NPCs will be attracted to the museum once it has exhibits. The museum curator sometimes offers gold in exchange for the special product exhibits. Some special products will be upgraded by certain plot events. Monster companions After the hero obtains the wagon in the second time period, defeated monsters will sometimes offer to join the party. There is a fixed probability of this happening if the PC is of sufficiently high level, and if the monster is of a valid species. (If there are multiple monsters, the game looks at the last one to be defeated.) It is possible for up to 3 monsters of a given species to join, although the probability of a new monster joining is reduced if there are already members of that species in the party. Monster companions can equip weapons and armor, and can level up. The level limits are usually less than 99, however. The monster always starts at "level 1", although it may be as powerful as a much higher level PC. Monsters can be commanded or assigned strategies, but depending on the hero's stats may not always obey orders. In certain towns, there is a Monster Depository, owned by the monster grandfather. Monsters can be placed here to free up slots in the party. Each monster species has four associated names which will be assigned when the monster joins the party. Specialties Monster companions can use their special attacks, such as dances and breath attacks, in battle. This is the first time in the series that such actions are available. The special attacks, unlike spells, do not usually use MP. Vehicles * Boat: It first appears towards the end of the first half of the second period, given by Ludman. At first it is confined to an inland sea, but after the hero marries, Ludman will move it to the ocean, opening the second half of the second period. * Magic carpet: It can travel on grass, water, and shoals, and will suppress wandering monster encounters due to its high speed. It can be carried as an item, allowing it to be used anywhere where there is a sufficient region of grass to take off. However, it cannot travel through forests, so a line of forest inside a line of water (or vice versa) remains an impassible barrier. * The Sky Castle: It can fly over any terrain; but it cannot reach or pass the high mountain on the central continent where the Great Temple is located. It can only land or take off from grass (and only large areas of grass, due to its size). The Return spell will not relocate the castle, although it is itself a valid Return target. * The Master Dragon: The Master Dragon can also fly over any terrain, and moreover can reach the Great Temple on the mountain. He may be called with the "Bell of the Dragon" item, given by the dragon towards the end of the game. Like the carpet and Castle, the Master Dragon can only drop or pick up the party from grassy locations. He cannot reach the Dark World, so the Bell will have no effect there. Manga Dragon Quest Tenkuu Monogatari (Tale of the Air) is a twelve-volume manga series based on Dragon Quest V by Chino Yukimiya, which ran in 1997, and again in 2001. The story follows Sora and Ten, the two children from Dragon Quest V. See Also List of Monsters in Dragon Quest V External Links Category:Main series games